Help! My kids outsmarted me!
The reading "Emerging Technologies for Learning" spoke to me in an intriguing way. A large part of the work I do for Columbia involves podcasting lectures for the Health Sciences campus. When I joined the university, podcasting was still the cool thing to do. Everyone, students first, was jumping on to the podcasting bandwagon. Faculty were obviously a little late to catch on and required some serious coaxing to join the party.
Today, podcasting is still a large part of my job, but the students have come to take it for granted and it is no longer the cool kid on the block. While I can only speculate about what kids are using as study aides (i.e. what else they may have moved on to), we know that not everybody is using the class audio.
For our part at CCNMTL, we are now trying to get faculty to move towards video and tablet PC based podcasting....with complete conversion by......perhaps the end of the decade! :)
I jest, but I must empathize with the faculty here. The idea suggested at the beginning of the article, of letting the teachers do their teaching thing the old fashioned way, while students do the tech part to improve their own learning seems a little "out there" for me....even though I brandish the title "Educational Technologist".
In recent months and years, the largest fear (I've noticed) that faculty have is that of becoming irrelevant in the educational process because of the fear of technology taking over completely. So yes, as the article later suggests, faculty need to include as much technology as possible (while being educationally justifiable).
With regards to working with students on implementing it, it sounds utopian, but a little unrealistic because of the issue of expectation on behalf of the students. They expect teachers to provide the content and teaching/learning aides and part of the classroom/education process, while primarily seeing themselves exclusively as learners.
While I am inclined to believe that technology alone cannot be a teacher to EVERYONE (for both learning-ability and economic reasons), I believe that as computers get more powerful and software simulators become more inclusive and pervasive, the role of the faculty member in the classroom as we know it today will progressively dwindle.
Pretty picture, ain't it?!
But bleak as I tend to paint it, I don't advocate less student face-time as being a bad thing. As a faculty member I know (aka, my supervisor) is currently testing (successfully), traditional seminar-based learning has given way to new team-based learning where class content is disseminated only outside the class in the form of PDFs and podcasts and in-class time is devoted to discussion and testing.
This article and my supervisor's class have put a fascinating spin on my subject of focus, which is "always on" learning and who drives it because of the combined use of cell phones, Wikis, podcasting,, etc.
If you finished reading this, award yourself $200 and move three places down the board.
Today, podcasting is still a large part of my job, but the students have come to take it for granted and it is no longer the cool kid on the block. While I can only speculate about what kids are using as study aides (i.e. what else they may have moved on to), we know that not everybody is using the class audio.
For our part at CCNMTL, we are now trying to get faculty to move towards video and tablet PC based podcasting....with complete conversion by......perhaps the end of the decade! :)
I jest, but I must empathize with the faculty here. The idea suggested at the beginning of the article, of letting the teachers do their teaching thing the old fashioned way, while students do the tech part to improve their own learning seems a little "out there" for me....even though I brandish the title "Educational Technologist".
In recent months and years, the largest fear (I've noticed) that faculty have is that of becoming irrelevant in the educational process because of the fear of technology taking over completely. So yes, as the article later suggests, faculty need to include as much technology as possible (while being educationally justifiable).
With regards to working with students on implementing it, it sounds utopian, but a little unrealistic because of the issue of expectation on behalf of the students. They expect teachers to provide the content and teaching/learning aides and part of the classroom/education process, while primarily seeing themselves exclusively as learners.
While I am inclined to believe that technology alone cannot be a teacher to EVERYONE (for both learning-ability and economic reasons), I believe that as computers get more powerful and software simulators become more inclusive and pervasive, the role of the faculty member in the classroom as we know it today will progressively dwindle.
Pretty picture, ain't it?!
But bleak as I tend to paint it, I don't advocate less student face-time as being a bad thing. As a faculty member I know (aka, my supervisor) is currently testing (successfully), traditional seminar-based learning has given way to new team-based learning where class content is disseminated only outside the class in the form of PDFs and podcasts and in-class time is devoted to discussion and testing.
This article and my supervisor's class have put a fascinating spin on my subject of focus, which is "always on" learning and who drives it because of the combined use of cell phones, Wikis, podcasting,
If you finished reading this, award yourself $200 and move three places down the board.
4 Comments:
Hey there! I'm interested by your "always on" learning but I'm not sure I completely understand. Do you mean a 24/7 access? With students being able to access a course management system through their cell phones or being able to participate anytime through wikis? Does it refer to RSS feeds? Or does it mean life-long learning (with people being able to take online courses all their life whenever they need new skills)? Maybe we can discuss later.
PS: I agree that "teachers working with students" sounds a little utopian!
By Clemence, At November 28, 2007 11:41 AM
hi Nitin, Thanks for the insight into your work. For me, someone with very limited experience with educational techologies, it is really helpful to relate class content to real situations. I'm interested in learning more about "tablet PC based podcasting". I know a little about podcasting, but can't envision how Tablet PCs would play-in.
I am always impressed by the learning management systems that medical schools have in place. From discussions with friends in the profession, I could definitely picture the "team-based learning" paradigm you mentioned.
By JLG, At November 29, 2007 6:05 AM
I think the teachers with the most fear are probably bad teachers to begin with and, in their case, new technologies will certainly replace them.
In my experience, good teachers (as deemed by student evals at least) captivate their pupils in a way that educational technology could possibly work with, but never replace.
Masters are those people who can find the right tool for the right job at the right time to great effect, and master educators exemplify this. A good example are those teachers who choose to use powerpoints for teaching specific lessons that *can be taught better* with them, and try to employ other techniques for other lessons, depending on the nature of the subject and material and how students mwill best engage with it.
The same idea of "replacement" has been around for a long time-- did books replace teachers? Did TVs? Did videos? Why not?
I'd say in some instances books have replaced teachers-- there are certainly those who are perfectly comfortable going to the podium with a pad of notes or even an actual text book and reading aloud for 45 minutes, saying "thank you" and walking away.
But those, I'd say, were probably bad teachers to begin with and as such were replaced, in essence, by the information itself. If a teacher can't create better thinkers, the data becomes more valuabl to the student just as it is, printed or recorded or not.
By Tucker, At November 29, 2007 4:08 PM
I don't understand why "teachers working with students" is utopian.
We are talking about collaboration. You combine a content expert(the teacher) with a technology expert (the student) and voila: a learning experience for both. Both teachers and students feel empowered when the final product is pedagogically sound. My concern is that in an educational system in which teachers teach to the test, the conversation about technology in the classroom is pointless. What is utopian is not having students and teachers working together but creating a nationwide educational environment that would nurture and promote learning regardless of the socioeconomic conditions of its students.
Can I have my $200 now?
By Vasilis, At December 1, 2007 12:17 PM
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